Tennessee's Toxic Sludge (The Nation)

Excerpt from link:

"This spill is the argument against 'clean coal,'" says Dan Volz, assistant professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Pittsburgh. "There's been a nationwide campaign by the coal industry to promote the use of clean coal. But clean coal is an oxymoron." Volz says it's true that new technologies can limit atmospheric emissions. "But the law of conservation of matter means that the toxins that don't go into the air simply get transferred to wastewater and coal ash," he says. "If a toxin is in a lump of coal and you burn it, it has to go somewhere."